The Swiss National Bank (SNB) expects to report a loss of three billion Swiss Francs (CHF) ($3.54 billion) for its 2023 financial year.

SNB said in a written statement its provisional calculation – ahead of the release of the definitive results on 4 March – showed its profit on foreign currency positions amounted to around CHF four billion with a valuation gain of CHF 1.7 billion recorded on gold holdings.

However, the loss on Swiss franc positions was CHF 8.5 billion, putting the national bank at a deficit of around CHF three billion.

Having paid CHF 10.5 billion to its currency reserves and taking into account last year's negative distribution reserve of 39.5 billion, SNB said it expected its running net loss for 2023 to be around CHF 53 billion.

SNB recently launched a new trial to test a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) in real-life environments.

The trial, which was carried out alongside six commercial banks, marked the first time a real wholesale CBDC had been issued in Swiss francs on a financial market infrastructure based on distributed ledger technology.

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